Scared to Death (1980)

Scared to Death: Directed by William Malone. With John Stinson, Diana Davidson, David Moses, Toni Jannotta. An ex-cop, now working as a hack novelist, is called out of retirement to help investigate a string of deaths that appear to be the work of a serial killer but soon are revealed to be the work of the Syngenor – the synthesized genetic organism!

“Cheesy u0026amp; low-budgeted 80u0026#39;s monster movies form a truly peculiar cinema breed. A small selection of them is so bad they become good again (or at least very amusing), but most of them are so bad theyu0026#39;re just plain awful, period. u0026quot;Scared to Deathu0026quot; represents a category on its own, namely the absolute worst of the worst. Besides being badly written, poorly acted, weakly directed and cheesy, this film is also unimaginably boring! Horror fans, myself included – are generally quite tolerant when it comes to 80u0026#39;s junk, but one thing nobody can stand is a mixture of cheese and boredom. The building up towards the killings takes far too long (up to seven minutes even) and when the creature finally strikes, we see absolutely nothing and the action promptly swifts to another scene. Whatu0026#39;s that all about? The story is also pretty non-existent and incoherent as hell. Itu0026#39;s some kind of earthbound u0026quot;Alienu0026quot; rip-off, with a murderous monster dwelling around the sewers and occasionally perpetrating a lonely womanu0026#39;s house or car in order to kill her. One incompetent cop and one pathetic ex-cop slowly (better make that VERY slowly) discover the creature is a genetic experiment that went a little awry and got dumped in the sewers by its creators. They call it a Syngenor, which stand for Synthetic Genetic Organism, and apparently it has a large appetite and a preference for young chicks on roller blades. The sub plot about the ex-copu0026#39;s beautiful romance with a lady whose car he accidentally hit is totally irrelevant and dreadful. There isnu0026#39;t the slightest bit of suspense or any attempt to create an atmosphere; all the potentially interesting sequences are dimly lit and when we finally catch a decent glimpse of the monster it looks like a poor imitation of u0026quot;Alienu0026quot;. The cast members are a bunch of untalented nobodies and William Maloneu0026#39;s direction is weak and uninspired. William Malone? Wasnu0026#39;t he also responsible for the more recent but equally stinking pile of garbage u0026quot;Feardotcomu0026quot;? Twenty years later and still a lousy director, practice doesnu0026#39;t always makes perfect. However, his other cheesy u0026amp; low-budgeted 80u0026#39;s monster movie u0026quot;Creatureu0026quot; (starring Klaus Kinski!) does qualify as so bad itu0026#39;s good!”